Do Edible Science! Let's Pop, Pop, Pop, Popcorn! by Cynthia Schumerth

DIG GROUND UP WITH A HOE.

PLANT THE SEEDS AND HOPE THEY GROW!

FINALLY HERE! SPROUTS APPEAR!

What any seed does to grow and turn itself into a full-grown plant that makes a "fruit" that contains new seeds is magical enough when you think about it, but that's just the first thing a popcorn seed does, in Cynthia Schumerth's just published science project in a book, Let's Pop, Pop, Popcorn! (Sleeping Bear Press, 2021). In case you have months of warm weather ahead, Schumerth describes how to plant, nurture, and to harvest the ears of popcorn, shuck them, and dry the kernels until it's time for the second part of the project--the part that you can eat! The author reminds her young food scientists to weed and water their little corn plants until they grow ears that are mature and ready for picking and then describes how to store them until you are ready to POP some corn.

In bouncy rhythmic rhyme, not unlike the sound of popping popcorn kernels, author Schermerth teaches about the anatomy of a kernel of popping corn, the germ that knows how to grow into corn, the endosperm, the starch that surrounds the germ and feeds its growth into corn, and the pericarp, the tough shell of the corn kernel that protects the starch and helps it retain some of its moisture even when it seems hard and dry.

And it's that water given to the plant, that moisture within the endosperm, that expands when it's heated, turning into steam which causes the corn kernel to EXPLODE, turn inside out, and become fluffy white popcorn, a tasty science experiment that teaches both plant science and physical science in the use of heat to produce expansion in matter.

It's a tasty tour de force of nature and physics that provides its own refreshments, and with the cute cartoon art of Mary Reaves Uhles to illustrate the whole process and its appended information and craft suggestions (Make A Popcorn Sheep), this book is recommended for primary grade classrooms, libraries, and for an edible home science experiment. Writes Kirkus Reviews, "Fun: a highly disguised STEM book for snack lovers.

Share this one with the classic, Tomie dePaola's The Popcorn Book (40th Anniversary Edition) and Frank Asch's Popcorn (A Frank Asch Bear Book).

A Foodie's Alphabet: A Is For Artichoke: a Foodie Alphabet from Artichoke to Zest by Maddie Frost

V Is For Vanilla

W Is For Whisk

Maddie Frost's A Is for Artichoke: A Foodie Alphabet from Artichoke to Zest (Sourcebooks, 2018) is not your father's alphabet book. Sponsored by America's Test Kitchen, this little book is tailored for the hardcore young foodie and filled with varieties of vegetables, fancy fruits, culinary concepts, and esoteric equipment, and the eye-pleasing pages mix colorful entries for ordinary foods--ice cream and jam--and unusual foods--kumquats, quinoa, xigua, ganache--and kitchen equipment from the ubiquitous oven to the less-common lemon zester.

Along with their letters, young children will learn about foods they may spot in the supermarket and enjoy the anthropomorphic cartoon illustrations, and slightly older kids may appreciate a nodding acquaintance with edibles like lox and edamame, tools like the whisk and tongs, and processes such as brining and caramelization. Even umami gets a mention, although the definition of "savory" only approaches the somewhat amorphous meaning of the term and may not be familiar for the youngest kids. This is indeed an alphabet book in a class by itself.

This different drummer of an abecedarius has specific appeal to kids who know or wish to know their way around the kitchen and table. Says School Library Journal, "Foodies will love this celebration of all good things to eat. Also an excellent introduction to more complex culinary vocabulary."